Yesterday we launched open.nasa.gov. Like openNASA, the new site will be a collaborative platform for the open government community to share success stories and projects they are working on. We are excited to finally have a home on nasa.gov and look forward to highlighting the ways that transparency, participation, and collaboration are being embraced by NASA policy, technology, and culture and discuss the amazing future that becomes possible because of that commitment.

Content from authors who will participate in the new open.nasa.gov site will be ported over, but this site will remain online and serve as an archive for the content from all those who have contributed to the project.  We have a lot planned for the new site, and anticipate it will be an even more successful project than openNASA.  We encourage you to check out the new site and let us know what you think! See you at nasa.gov.

http://open.nasa.gov

For over half a century, NASA has inspired people across the world to look to the heavens and wonder what secrets are hidden within the cosmos. Solving those mysteries has long been the domain of lab-coat wearing scientists in government agencies and universities. However, with the advent of the internet, social web, and open source data, it has become possible for anyone to make scientific discoveries about our universe. Find out how you can actively contribute to space exploration and how the collective power of the internet is enabling the future of scientific research.

NASA has a solid schedule planned with a heavy emphasis on remote participation for those that cannot attend in person. The first hour will include presentations from leaders in the Open Government Community as well as remarks from Astronaut Jose Hernandez. The presentations will be streamed on NASA TV and will begin at 9am and conclude at 10am. Afterwards, the participants will move into the collaborative workshop which will take place at NASA HQ and online. Due to the availability of live streaming and Internet access, this will be our most collaborative workshop so far. Registration is required to receive all the information regarding the event, so if you have not registered, do so today!

The focus of the collaborative workship is on agency’s use of open data and the future of the open government community. This summit will provide an opportunity for us to also document the challenges to open government that span multiple agencies, and to take concrete steps toward overcoming them. To be clear, this is not a discussion about NASA’s Open Government Plan, rather its an opportunity for the OpenGov community to spend the day working together on common OpenGov topics.

RSVP: http://october-opengov-workshop.eventbrite.com

“This week I am introducing a new feature from the Advanced Planning Office. The idea for the project came from listening to all of the conversations around the center about the uncertainty and changes before us in 2011. Much of the conversation that I hear is focused on what we will not be doing and the loss of our workforce. Undoubtedly it is going to be a difficult transition as some of our colleagues will be leaving the JSC community and yet we WILL continue the Human Exploration of Space. JSC will carry the torch forward and what we do today will determine how quickly we get to extend our reach into our solar system. So with the inspiration of Pat Rawlings, we would like to engage the JSC community on a discussion of what we CAN DO today that will ensure the below vision of JSC at the 100th anniversary of our landing on the moon. Enjoy and let us know what you think.”

Hooversworld blog | Gary Hoover Webinar | Presentation Slides

Gary Hoovers 8 Keys to Creating and Building Lasting Enterprises

1. Curiosity — nothing is ever discovered by looking in the same place as everyone else, or looking in the same way as everyone else.  All discovery starts with exploration. Ask a lot of questions. Go beyond the first “why.” Study the mundane, the “everyday.” Travel, observe, talk to people. Read, go to concerts, try new things. Look at other industries. The answers are rarely where you expect to find them. Opportunities are everywhere.

2. History — you can’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you are coming from.  Watching key long-term trends is a critical part of successful leadership.  What are some of the trends to watch today? What large demographic shifts are at work? What can be learned from the leaders of the past, including those in your own industry and company?

3. Geography — we all come from somewhere, we all grew up somewhere.  In a shrinking world, it is more important than ever to understand people and places. Do you know the population of your metropolitan area? Do you know the growth rates of your county and surrounding counties? Do you know what is going on in countries around the world, which places are rising and falling and why? What are people leaving some places and moving to others?

(I believe the above three mindsets are the keys to dreaming up innovative new ideas that relate to the real needs of real people.  Once you have a mission in mind, the points below kick into gear.)

4. Clarity of Vision — can any third-grader understand your vision?  Or are you trapped in double-speak and buzzwords, an alphabet soup of acronyms, and jargon?

5. Consistency of Vision — do you stick to what you are good at and what you believe in, through thick and thin? Do you have a consistent purpose?

6. Service — the only valid reason for the existence of an enterprise is to deliver products and services to people, to somehow make the world a better place. The minute you think that power resides in the boardroom or in Washington, or that your company can be made great through making good deals or acquisitions, rather than through focusing on the customers, you are most likely at the beginning of the end. Serving others well must be the top priority – your other stakeholders including suppliers, community, investors, and employees will then have something to share.

7. Unique Vision — do you sound and look like all your competitors or do you stand out, following a unique path that is true to your enterprise and your soul? Differentiation is the key.

8. Passion — if you aren’t doing something you love, you will never be the best at it!

• Space Exploration Vehicles (PDF) – a pair of rovers that astronauts will live in for 7 days at a time
• Habitat Demonstration Unit/Pressurized Excursion Module (PDF) – a simulated habitat where the rovers can dock to allow the crew room to perform experiments or deal with medical issues. The Habitat Development Unit will be used to evaluate the geosciences laboratory in conjunction with the sample collections and to assess the spacesuit maintenance area inside. This team will also focus on procedures for keeping out the dust, the effects on the overall integrated communications and data system and how easy the habitat is for people to use.
• Tri-ATHLETEs, or -Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (PDF) – two heavy-lift rover platforms that allow the habitat, or other large items, to go where the action is portable communications terminals. The ATHLETE System, which consists of a pair of Tri-ATHLETE rovers, will be remotely controlled both in Arizona and from Houston to demonstrate long-traverse operations during lunar time delays and portable local operations from the personnel in Arizona.
• Centaur 2 (PDF) – a possible four-wheeled transportation method for NASA Robonaut 2
• Portable Utility Pallets, or PUPs for short – mobile charging stations for equipment
• Navigation systems to help guide spacewalkers and both solar and wind-powered equipment, will be demonstrated and tested.
• And a suite of new geology sample collection tools, including a self-contained GeoLab glove box for conducting in-field analysis of various collected rock samples.

For more information, follow the field season on the internet. Here’s how:

NASA Webpage: The official DRATS webpage is your one-stop shop for all activities occurring during the 14-day mission.

Blogs: The DRATS team shares their field experience on their website’s blog.

Flickr: The team is also posting photos daily!!

Facebook: Click “Like” for DRATS on Facebook. This page includes links, photos, comments/discussions from the DRATS team, students and interested citizens.

Twitter: The team is tweeting from @DESERT_RATS throughout the mission—these are brief communications to give a real-time status of the mission activities.

YouTube: Check out videos of this year’s mission on our NASAanalogTV site.

We need your help! SXSW is a community-driven event and voting accounts for 30% of the decision-making process for any given programming slot.  Of the 2346 proposed panels, only about 80 get selected.  The more votes we submit for the space panels, the more likely they will be included in the final SxSW program.  Voting ends 11:59 CDT on Friday, August 27, so please vote today!

Inspiration: Here’s something that inspired me last year around SxSW time and is exactly the reason we need this panel at SxSW.  Watch this video, vote, and then tell your friends to vote.

Vote for “All These Worlds are Yours: Visualizing Space Data”

At the intersection of video gaming technology, open government and citizen science are new applications making it easier and more fun for the public to explore space data. Get an inside look at virtual environments incorporating real-time spacecraft data and images. Become an armchair astronaut and travel through the cosmos from your personal computer. Ride along with NASA spacecraft, hazardous asteroids and distant planets, or just experience the vastness and beauty of space. All these worlds are yours… including Europa.

Questions Answered:

• What games, applications and virtual environments are being developed using space mission data?
• Where have the spacecraft been, what have they seen, and how is their data processed to create these environments?
• How quickly is real-time science data available for the public to see?
• What are the educational applications of these environments?
• What does an earth flyby look like from an asteroid’s POV?

The Next Rocket Scientist: You

Vote for “The Next Rocket Scientist: You”

For over half a century, NASA has inspired people across the world to look to the heavens and wonder what secrets are hidden within the cosmos. Solving those mysteries has long been the domain of lab-coat wearing scientists in government agencies and universities. However, with the advent of the internet, social web, and open source data, it has become possible for anyone to make scientific discoveries about our universe. Find out how you can actively contribute to space exploration and how the collective power of the internet is enabling the future of scientific research.

Questions Answered:

• What are the different ways I can participate in space exploration?
• How can I contribute to science without a formal science background?
• What’s the history and present state of citizen science?
• How can I get started right away?
• Do my contributions actually make a significant impact and receive personal recognition?

Panelists:

Nicholas Skytland, NASA
Ariel Waldman, Spacehack.org
William Pomerantz, X PRIZE Foundation
George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic

Space Buzz-The New High

Vote for “Space Buzz – The New High”

As NASA explores the new social frontier it is breaking boundaries in the way Federal Government communicates by drawing in input from people of all walks from all over the world. Using the NASA Buzzroom site, NASA has given a voice to individuals whose unique opinions would otherwise be unheard. This panel will include NASA professionals as well as social media and design experts to engage the audience in sharing thoughts on how to break of the social solar system for worlds unknown.

Questions Answered:

• How to create a buzz and stay relevant storm of available information.
• How to collect the buzz, the design and development aspects.
• How best to use the buzz?
• Why should NASA care about the buzz?
• How to perpetuate a buzz?

Panelists:

Beth Beck, NASA
Jesse Thomas, Jess3.com,
Stephanie Schierholz, NASA
Miles O’Brien
Ariel Waldman, Spacehack.org

The Power of Prizes: Crowdsourcing Breakthroughs

Vote for “The Power of Prizes: Crowdsourcing Breakthroughs”

Incentive prize competitions have a long history of success in spurring innovative and creative answers to challenging problems. But more recently, the prize model has received a boost in popularity and attention. Why? This panel will discuss how and why companies, organizations, and governments are leveraging incentive challenges to drive breakthroughs, ranging from the creation of highly efficient processes (such as the Netflix prize), to demonstrations of technological capability (such as the DARPA Network Challenge), to solving the grand challenges of humanity (such as the Archon Genomics X PRIZE), and everything in between. Join us as we explore the leading edge of crowd-driven innovation.

Questions Answered:

• How do incentive prizes work?
• What are the benefits of the incentive prize model?
• What are some currently active prizes?
• How can you utilize incentive prizes in your business or organization?
• How can you participate in incentive prize programs as a “solver”?

When I was growing up, asking a classroom full of kids that question almost always included the answer “I want to be an astronaut!”  Space was cool. Space was something new, innovative and entrepreneurial. Inspiration was clearly NASA’s main value proposition.

Compare that with today.

What inspires tomorrow’s explorers, engineers and business leaders? From my personal experience, it has less and less to do with NASA, and more and more to do with other, well let’s just say “cooler” things.

Tomorrow’s leaders want to work for the “cool” company. They want to work for the next Google. The one that is open to new ideas. And so I wonder, how do we make NASA cool again? How do we use our space program as a catalyst to pass along that innovative, entrepreneurial, American spirit that got us to the moon in less than 10 years and launched a generation of innovators? Or better yet, how do we communicate all the cool things NASA is actually doing? Because, whether you know it or not, NASA does some amazing things!

I think it’s simple. Let them participate.

Think about it. Isn’t going to space so much cooler when you get to actually go?  Isn’t that lunar rover so much better when you actually get to build it and then drive it?  Isn’t that classroom outreach visit by the astronaut so much more relevant when they answer your question and then ask you one?

People want to be personally engaged. People want to see how they fit into the big picture. People, of all ages, want to be inspired. So that’s our challenge. We call it“participatory exploration” – creating a government agency that engages the American public in its mission and inspires the next generation of explorers, no matter what they want to be when they grow up.

How do people participate in what you do?

If you are in an organization, with a great product, that is having a tough time convincing your customers of your value proposition, you are not alone. I challenge you to think about how you can create a platform for participation in your organization. Don’t settle for mediocrity by just exposing people to or educating them about your product, collaborate with them to make it better.

If you want to attract the best and the brightest, open up your doors to new ideas and use participatory initiatives to attract the best and brightest earlier by allowing them to participate in your company.

At NASA, we know that business models are not eternal and we’re challenging the way we’ve always done things by working to make participatory exploration a core part of our business model. Whether NASA is designing the next exploration missions, using social networks to allow students to interact directly with astronauts living in space or creating a cutting edge Cloud Computing Platform to give the public unprecedented access to scientific data, NASA is engaging the American public in its mission.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few of the successful initiatives that are leading the way at NASA:

• NASA’s highly successful Centennial Challenges prize program has engaged inventors from around the country to successfully build prototypes of technology and innovation for use in space.
• We’re using social engagement tools to collect hundreds of ideas for improving the agency’s openness and transparency, more suggestions than any other government agency.
• Through a new policy initiative, NASA is working to make open source software development more collaborative for the benefit of the agency and the public. NASA has created “Nebula,” the U.S. government’s only cloud computing platform, which offers an easier way for NASA scientists and researchers to share large, complex data sets with external partners and the public.
• NASA is giving the public live access to its missions through NASA TV and its many social media sites.
• NASA’s education outreach program includes initiatives where students have opportunities to control space instruments remotely.
• NASA is establishing a new Participatory Exploration Office, which will be charged with infusing more public participation into NASA’s mission in order to directly engage citizens in exploration.

This article is cross-posted from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business “McCombs Today” Blog and was originally published on May 14th, 2010.

As @bethbeck mentioned yesterday in her post “Ideas on How to Open NASA?  Spill!” -

We’ve deployed a cool idea-sharing tool to let you give input, comment on input of others, and vote ideas up or down. Your ideas will feed into NASA’s Open Government Plan. You need an account first, but that’s as simple as adding your e-mail and a password.

We are looking forward to your ideas!

P.S. If you are interested in visiting the Open Initiative websites of other government agencies, Sunglight Labs has a great tracking site setup.  I’ve also included a list of all the sites for you here:

Yesterday, Amiko Kauderer (@amikokauderer), Joel Walker (@joelwalker), James McClellan (@jbmccl) and I (@skytland) had an opportunity to attend the Houston Social Media Club breakfast at the Houston Zoo to talk about NASA’s experiments in social media.  I wanted to share the presentation with the openNASA community and also invite you to the Houston Zoo’s next event!  So, if you are in Houston on Friday, February 26th, make sure to check out the “Tweets in Space” event at the Houston Zoo to meet some “twittering astronauts”!  Here’s some information:

On the evening of Friday February 26, 2010, we’re bringing the sights and sounds of space to the Houston Zoo. Expect an evening of learning, food, drink, entertainment and surprises from NASA and our community.  Our program will begin at 7:30 pm and afterward we will mingle, enjoy great music and get to know each other better.  Grab your tickets while they still last - on sale now!

WHEN: Friday February 26, 2010, 7-10 pm
WHERE: The Houston Zoo’s George R. Brown Education Hall (enter at Gate 5 - directions here)
HOW MUCH: $40 (Proceeds from the event will go to support the Houston Zoo) partners.

Photo credit: Mainline Mom